Mission: AstroAccess will launch a group of disabled scientists, veterans, students, athletes, and artists on a historic parabolic flight with the Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) as the first step in a progression toward flying a diverse range of people to space. These “AstroAccess Ambassadors” will experience weightlessness and carry out lunar gravity, Martian gravity, and zero gravity observations and experiments investigating how the physical environment aboard space vessels should be modified so that all astronauts and explorers, regardless of disability on Earth, can live, work, and thrive in space. AstroAccess Ambassadors will not only participate in a parabolic flight, but will use their platform to act as public advocates for global disability access in STEM.

Our first parabolic flight will fly on ZERO-G on October 17, 2021, with the ultimate goal of flying one or more team members to space in the coming years. This project is being supported through The Whitesides Foundation and is part of the SciAccess Initiative, an international organization dedicated to advancing disability inclusion in STEM. The fiscal sponsor of the project is Yuri’s Night, a non-profit space advocacy organization.